History

Well we are a group of gamers, that’s for sure. We are here to enjoy our time together online. However, there are more things we have in common besides being a gaming group.

So what are we then? Put simply, we’re a group of people that is based on the foundation of trust and respect for one another. We don’t have ranks, numbers or positions to identify ourselves with, because we treat each other as mature adults with dignity, and contrary to popular belief, this statement does not clash with some of the specific text below.

All of this may sound a little corny, but that’s essentially how things are.

As far as gaming goes, we do not perform any type of trial runs in skill examinations or investigations. Age is also not a factor in being one of our members. Everyone is able to join our group as long as they are able to behave themselves in a mature manner. That means there is no room for egos or attitudes, and they are usually not tolerated for an extended amount of time.

We are also big enthusiasts of sportsmanship. That means there is absolutely no room for any type of cheating (in reference to online gaming of course) or spying. While the information gathered from possible hostile groups would be useful, the act of espionage is in itself derisory, and therefore has no place with us. We have no use for such exploits, especially because they require tricking other people into believing a lie.

Purposefully taunting and insulting other individuals inside or outside of the SSC is not something that is condoned as well. While it is true we are all human, and when tempers fly many things are said, it is an admirable attribute to be able to rise above all of it, and maintain integrity.

It should also be mentioned that we are an entity which sponsors moderation as well. The following is a brief outline of how the entire system functions:

The moderators we have are there to facilitate games going smoothly. From experience the SSC moderators and long term members will tell you that for the vast majority of the games we play, it just isn’t practical to have a self policing division. The moderators are taken from the membership, and the moderating position encompasses all of the members. Each member is given the opportunity to work for, and with their friends by taking the responsibility of moderating.

The real reason behind having a system of moderation is easy to grasp. We aren’t perfect. We make mistakes in selection and people change, but every SSC member who feels that their moderator is not being a true SSC moderator can speak to other moderators or The Arbiter. Understand that moderators are there for practical reasons, not to be the dictator of their selective group. SSC moderators should never really have to be anything more than an example and role model. There will only be moderation in cases where people aren’t acting like we expect a member of the SSC to act. I.e. Racism, Sexism, Homophobia and General intolerance. An SSC member should have honor and integrity. They should feel free and equal. When you take the name of SSC you take the responsibility that comes with it. Within the SSC a moderator should never be forced to take responsibility for others. Moderate yourselves, and we won’t have to.

Subsequently, the position of The Arbiter should be explained.

The Arbiter is chosen by the entire SSC group (the entire membership count is offered the poll, from all of the games we play) through a vote. The Arbiter is sort of the guardian of the SSC, ensuring things run in the intended way and the community works. This includes establishing a permanent home and domain registration (as well as working together with the technical administrators to keep the sites operational and useful), establishing appropriate discussion forums as required, and driving consensus throughout the community to avoid division and segregation of the overall community in order to facilitate people congregating and enjoying themselves.

That about wraps up the responsibilities that are distributed within our community.

The most important thing to know about our gaming habits as well is that we do not strive to be the best in the community. It is far more important to respect others and to be respected in return. We are not strangers to this, and have friendships with many other clans. Competition is not the most important thing, although it is welcome when it is conforming to the ideas written above.

We’re a good group. We have been, for quite a long time. Please take the time and chance to get to know us.

Manifesto

Charter

The Shattered Star Community (SSC) is a gaming community originally founded in 1997 (initially as the “Shattered Star Confederation”, though for many years we have been known as the Shattered Star Exiles (SSX) too) under the principle of 5 core ideals; Freedom – Equality – Honor – Integrity – Friendship. Whilst we do not tend to have these as our written law so much anymore, these ideals are still a part of who we are and what brought us together. Here at the SSC fun, friendship and community are what comes first.

Right away you’ll probably see that we’re unlike a lot of other guilds out there. As such, please take a few minutes to read this page before you decide whether we are right for you or not. Here are some things you should know about us:

We don’t strive to be the best of the best, though we welcome friendly competition. We may have been very successful in other games, and we will of course celebrate our accomplishments as a group, but we’re not overly concerned with becoming top dogs. As long as we’re having fun whilst we play in our own way, that’s all that matters.

We do not recruit based on either your skill or your gear. We may, of course, chat to you during the recruitment process, or come and play with you for a short time, but this would be purely to get to know you as a person and find out what you’re looking for in a group – whether our community could be what you’re looking for.

We believe in quality over quantity regarding recruitment. We’ve never been interested in recruiting for numbers alone, nor of building groups around gear, class or raiding experience. We care about our members and would much rather have a smaller, close-knit group who get on well together and enjoy playing through content with each other than a large guild with no other interest than progression through nightly raids.

We don’t impose activity limits upon our members, and nor are we selective over specific classes or specs. It doesn’t matter whether you play 7 hours a week or 20. Play as much or as little as you can, when you want, how you want. We will make no demands of you in this regard.

We don’t impose any age restrictions. As a very diverse gaming community we’ve had people across a broad spectrum of ages join us over the years, from all walks of life and from all over the world too. Many of us have grown from young teens to adults and moved from one MMO to another together since we’ve been here. All we ask is that you act in a mature manner, treat others with respect (including other players outside the group) and to try and help fellow members out if and when you can. – It should also go without saying but we do not discriminate based on gender, race or sexual preference either. We’re all equals here.

We don’t have a “leader” per-se. Instead, each of our groups has a set of moderators (or officers) to share the workload between them, and our community as a whole has what we call an Arbiter. This person is voted for by the community on a yearly basis, and is there to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

This does depend on the game we’re playing but as a general rule we don’t usually require our members to use voice communications software. Some of our members may choose to use these together regardless, but use of such things will not be a requirement for general membership in our community and will only be required with a specific game when absolutely necessary.

We do make use of IRC outside of games, which a few of us use/idle on. Details of this can be found here, alternatively you can connect through your web browser right here. It can be quiet at times when we’re all doing other things, but you are welcome to join us on there. Again though, this is not a requirement for membership of our community.

We do require SSC members to register on our official forums. Since we’re a community not restricted to just one game, participation on our forums is necessary. We’d like to hope that you will stick around and maybe play some other games with the group in the future as well. We believe that friendship shouldn’t end with just one game!

Over the years we have enjoyed tremendous success in many games through applying the above principles. Just a few of these games are: Freespace, Freespace 2 (we’re even in the credits), Tribes, Neocron, EVE Online, LOTRO, World of Warcraft and The Old Republic. We’re hoping our organization here in Star Citizen will form the next chapter in our history and we’d love for you to be a part of it. If you feel we might be right for you, feel free to contact us either here or on our official forums at shatteredstar.org.